Help please!

[desperate man]

As my log-in name suggests, I am desperate.

Just came across your excellent forum, so am hoping for some expert advice.

My circumstances are........

Divorced living on my own.

Own my own home on mortgage with about £350k equity. Not in arrears on mortgage.

Up to my overdraft limit.

Up to my credit card limit.

Business debts of about £100k with six on CCJs, which I am paying off at an agreed amount each month.

Now the killer.....

Just received a statutory demand from The Inland Revenue for £25k, which I can not pay.

They have listened to my pleadings and have given me until the end of January to come up with the cash or face a Bankruptcy hearing.

I have approached a brker for a loan, but this has been refused due to my CCJs.

Is there any alternative to me selling or losing my home, or has anyone got any better advice.

By the way, my business is a good successful one which usually turns over a good yield each month, however the past two months have been bad.

I am confident that this is just a temporary glitch, as I have been in business for 20 years and seen bad cashflow come and go.

Help me to get out of this situation, if you can.

Many thanks.

[ukaviator]

Hello and welcome.

 

I will flag your post up to a few others who are very good at this.

[tomterm8]

With regard to your business debts are they against your name, or your business?

[desperate man]

With regard to your business debts are they against your name, or your business?

 

 

I am a sole trader.

They are against me trading as.

[Edz11]

They don't normally do stat demands on fresh debt. How old is it and is any of it as result of it not being on ITRS?

 

At this stage the interest wil be about a fiver a day. How much of the amount is penalties and interest?

[Shelty]

Not sure if this helps much DM, but I went through the bank charges reclaim process for my current a/c, a closed business a/c & a number of credit cards, and they all paid out + interest. That was over a period of 6 months I suppose, but that allowed a huge chunk of my debt to be repaid, and all of a sudden life was easier. Good luck to you !

[Robertxc]

As my log-in name suggests, I am desperate.

Just came across your excellent forum, so am hoping for some expert advice.

My circumstances are........

Divorced living on my own.

Own my own home on mortgage with about £350k equity. Not in arrears on mortgage.

Up to my overdraft limit.

Up to my credit card limit.

Business debts of about £100k with six on CCJs, which I am paying off at an agreed amount each month.

Now the killer.....

Just received a statutory demand from The Inland Revenue for £25k, which I can not pay.

They have listened to my pleadings and have given me until the end of January to come up with the cash or face a Bankruptcy hearing.

I have approached a brker for a loan, but this has been refused due to my CCJs.

Is there any alternative to me selling or losing my home, or has anyone got any better advice.

By the way, my business is a good successful one which usually turns over a good yield each month, however the past two months have been bad.

I am confident that this is just a temporary glitch, as I have been in business for 20 years and seen bad cashflow come and go.

Help me to get out of this situation, if you can.

Many thanks.

£25k is a lot, and you can expect HMRC to follow through on their threat to bankrupt you. You could try re-mortgaging to release some equity, but that will be very expensive. I think that with the amount of equity you have you would definitely be able to do it, but the rate would be horrendous.

 

It may be that losing your home is going to become inevitable - whether you sell it or someone takes it off you. If I were in your shoes I would sieze control of the situation by selling up, paying everyone off and moving on.

[Edz11]

The penalties and interest question is not intended to raise the prospect of it being similar to the Banks' penalty charges. You can't do that on the Revenue. Just that if the debt is £25k then it is probably a little on the old side and 1 third to a half may well be interest and penalties. The Revenue don't normally do this unless you have not kept to an arrangement. Have you asked your accountant for help or is it DIY tax?